Pulp open first major tour in 20 years in Glasgow with a blistering set of lust and longing

Scottish Sun

4 days ago

Pulp's opening night at the Hydro in Glasgow was packed
DIFFERENT CLASS Pulp open first major tour in 20 years in Glasgow with a blistering set of lust and longing
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They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Minutes, hours, days.
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Jarvis Cocker 'shouting and pointing' James Edmond/Shutterstock
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Pulp opened their first major tour since 2003 at Glasgow's Hydro
Credit: Redferns
And if the queues outside the Hydro in Glasgow are anything to go by there is more than a little fondness for Jarvis Cocker and Pulp.
Almost 25 years on from their last record - they're back and boy, have we missed them.
A velvet curtain slowly reveals Jarvis' spindly silhouette as comeback single, Spike Island, opens proceedings.
The first song of the first night back at it - and it's the band's very essence distilled into four-and-a-half minutes.
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Pulp have returned with their first new record in 24 years James Edmond/Shutterstock
As he intones 'I was born to perform/it's a calling' while sashaying across the stage, all theatrical hands and pensive delivery - it's hard to disagree.
What follows is a volley of new material, Grown Ups and Slow Jam are filled with Cocker's wit before the first dose of nostalgia with Sorted for Es and Wizz.
For a bunch of misfits Pulp look and sound full of the confidence one can only gain by having nothing to lose.
Disco 2000 a tale of lust, longing and lost potential is nonchalantly tossed out five songs in complete with confetti cannons and suddenly 14,000 people are on their feet.
You see, Pulp are the great British band of the 90s. 'Oasis or Blur?' was the question but the real answer, the only right answer, was always Pulp.
The darkness, the intensity, the articulation of a thought you never knew you had.
Jarvis nails it.
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Jarvis Cocker in action at the TRNSMT show in 2023
F.E.E.L.I.N.G C.A.L.L.E.D L.O.V.E is a drug soaked anxiety dream. A pen portrait of the desolation longing can leave you wallowing in.
In a set of two halves, This is Hardcore era tracks rub shoulders with the reborn material and even snippets from the unfairly maligned We Love Live.
An intermission is followed by Something Changed as the band rally for a final emotional assault on a frankly adoring crowd.
The cocaine flecked panic of the Fear gives way to vintage number OU before the winner of a fans vote, Seconds, in a touch showing a band who maybe love their fans as much as the fans love them.
You see it's love, or lust, that drives us and few people can capture the hinterland that lingers between like Jarvis.
Whether it's the highs and lows of existing or the fading fortunes, friendships and hopes of a disappearing youth.
Tonight, it's all on show.
The home straight is an emotional rollercoaster.
Acrylic Afternoons, conjures up images of nylon sweaters and suburban claustrophobia, Do You Remember the First Time? Is a portrait of the mediocre mundanity we all thought we could avoid while Misshapes, that rallying call for the unremarkable, sets the arena alight.
Got To Have Love, another fresh cut, feels like a wiser, warmer sibling of F.E.E.L.I.N.G… and hammers home Pulp's knack for combining disco and desperation.
Building to the finale, a frantic, frenzied thrashing of Babies, reaches the climatic cry of a man done wrong 'we were on the bed when you came home/I heard you stop outside the door/I know you won't believe it's true/I only went with her 'cause she looks like you'.
But where does a band go from there?
Enter Common People. A hymn to the desperation of the working man. Fags, pool, supermarkets. Of the hope among the chip papers. Of looking after your own. And living. In spite of it all.
And that's that. A Sunset, a gentle glow that closes the latest record, is a swift half at the bar. One more for the road from one of Britain's most important bands.
So then, Oasis or Blur? I joke. The answer, as always, is Pulp.
Different Class.